closed checkersFORfree.com

[DJCOM]

Thinking about developing a simple checkers game.

What do you think this is worth with and without the development?

---------- Post added at 09:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 PM ----------

Throw "CheckersFirst.com" in there too

 

[WhoDatDog]

I never understood the question of "what would it be worth if developed?" I have been seeing this for years and it doesn't make any sense at all. The name is worth zero without development. If you decide to develop the name then you now have a BUSINESS, and your business value will then be determined by your business.

Google was once a domain name. It is now a business. They are two different things. There are certain names that lend themselves to development, but CheckersForFree is not one of them. Checkers is always free, as far as I know, and I bet that most people expect it to be free. CheckersForFree.com wouldn't even be worth anything if it cost money to play checkers.

Why should you be able to register CheckersForFree.com and have it be worth anything? At some point, there needs to be some insight or advantage on a domain registration or purchase that will create the value. The world doesn't work in a way that allows for someone to register CheckersForFree.com and turn a profit.....nor should it work that way.

I am sure there are numerous areas where you have expertise. So, I would maybe look into those areas where you have an "edge", and you might just find some domain names that are unregistered that might be worth something. The odds are right about zero that the current approach you are using is going to lead to positive results. You need to take a step back and think about what you are doing. This name doesn't cut it, so I am being harsh in hopes of shocking you into your senses.

If and when you figure it out, you will thank me.

 

[grcorp]

Without development: reg fee

With development: Indefinite. It in all honesty doesn't matter whether the game is good or lousy. If you can get people coming in every day from Google or from type-ins, you've got yourself a winner. At the end of the day, all it's about is traffic. Anybody can get an API for checkers, throw the HTML code into a site, maybe do a couple of banner ad spaces and a header and put it on a domain name. The name checkersforfree.com is a poor name. I could go ahead and register any name I wanted and build a checkers site on it to compete with yours, and as long as our sites don't have any traffic, they're both worth the same amount - $0.

My advice is to forget about checkersforfree... I kind of like checkersfirst actually. Don't spend too much time on development. Focus your time on link sharing/getting backlinks, doing your SEO, driving traffic, getting indexed as a checkers site (or the checkers site), and getting some analytics so you can get an advertiser to take out their checkbook for the rights to advertise on your site.

For the time being, put some banners for clickbank products using your affiliate ID link in the ad spaces. Who knows? You might knock a few sales out of it.

 

[DJCOM]

Thanks for both of your insights.... I didn't think that I would just be able to think of a valuable domain name off the top of my head and expect it to be available. I guess I was trying to get any kind of insight....

grcorp, I appreciate your advice, unfortunitley, I don't know what a lot of that means. I was thinking about finding a Checkers API and put it up along with some Google adwords and then Search engine optimize and see what i can rake in (even if it's pennies a day). - Am I being naive? if so, can you point me in a better direction?

---------- Post added at 12:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 AM ----------

P.S. "Checkersfirst.com" is valued more on Valuate.com - Do you think i should develop checkersfirst instead? I feel like "Play Checkers for Free" would get typed in a lot more to google, no?

I'm kind of trying to do what "Chess.com" does only simplier. I thought it'd nice that I wouldn't be competeing with Checkers.com

 

[grcorp]

grcorp, I appreciate your advice, unfortunitley, I don't know what a lot of that means. I was thinking about finding a Checkers API and put it up along with some Google adwords and then Search engine optimize and see what i can rake in (even if it's pennies a day). - Am I being naive? if so, can you point me in a better direction?

A checkers API will not be difficult to find at all. However, as your site (if I understand your intentions correctly) won't have much (if any) unique content, it would not be accepted for Google Adwords.

I'd recommend googling "free checkers" or "play checkers online" to get an idea as to what the presently high-ranking sites are doing right.

As for your revenue, assuming you're paying $8.00 to renew the name every year, you need to make at least 2 cents per day to break even. This does not count your hosting costs, nor your time spent developing.

Are you at all familiar with Clickbank? You can earn commissions of up to 75% on affiliate sales of ebooks, which in one sale alone can pay off your domain renewal. I just got a check for $65.55 from Clickbank a few days ago for posting one blog article with an affiliate link in it and doing nothing else. That was less than half a year ago. If you can lure potential customers to your site with a free game of checkers, it's more opportunity to earn commissions.

---------- Post added at 12:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:32 AM ----------

P.S. "Checkersfirst.com" is valued more on Valuate.com - Do you think i should develop checkersfirst instead? I feel like "Play Checkers for Free" would get typed in a lot more to google, no?

I'm kind of trying to do what "Chess.com" does only simplier. I thought it'd nice that I wouldn't be competeing with Checkers.com

First off, valuations from Valuate.com, Estibot.com and the like are meaningless when it comes to developing sites. I think Checkersfirst is far superior to Checkersforfree. Remember, you can put in the meta tags terms including and similar to "play checkers for free".

While chess.com may seem complicated, it's exactly what you want from a developer's perspective.

By obfuscating the path from typing in "chess.com" to being able to play chess, a viewer must visit more pages, which triggers more page views, which is more revenue in the publisher's pocket. It also gives the user a chance to encounter other things of interest which perhaps might prolong their stay, causing more page views, and once again, more revenue.

Another added benefit is more pages with unique content on each page is great for SEO to get you a better ranking.

 

[DJCOM]

OOOOHHHHH..... cool.... Okay I get that.

So now how do you go about developing a site like Chess.com when you don't know how to code or anything like that? Are there rescources out there to help me achieve that without having to code? is it economically feasible to hire someone?

 

[grcorp]

OOOOHHHHH..... cool.... Okay I get that.

So now how do you go about developing a site like Chess.com when you don't know how to code or anything like that? Are there rescources out there to help me achieve that without having to code? is it economically feasible to hire someone?

99.9% of revenue-generating sites were made by people with an above-average knowledge of code. You as the creator know exactly what you want to do... but the concept may be difficult for a developer to grasp, or may require functionality which is abnormal. I ran into this quite a bit while working in sales for a web development firm.

Not knowing code is the very encumbrance that is holding me back from doing something with my domain portfolio. I can only build a basic HTML site and don't know the first thing about using MySQL to get the thing online.

It could be economically feasible to hire someone... but that just sets you back even further cost-wise. I've never actually developed a site, so I can't advise you as to how to learn to do it yourself.

Under "Advertising and related offers", you won't have a hard time finding someone who will give you a good deal on developing the site... just make sure you have an idea as to what you want the site to do and how you want it to look. Also make sure you have good analytics in place to find out how much traffic you're getting.

But before you pursue it, consider this... how many visitors can you realistically expect, and what does that mean to you in terms of revenue? If your site makes $500 in a year, that's $1.36 per day. Not a whole lot, but it's still $500 in revenue. You just have to evaluate whether or not the possible reward is worth your time, and not spend too much at first on a site that may never get one visitor. You're in the red until your hosting, development and domain have all been paid for.

 

[ngconcepts]

Please don't go down this path if you can't code...you will lose your shirt.

 

[DJCOM]

Well... Forget about the hosting fee.... I'm paying for hosting for my portfolio site anyway, I'm a filmmaker: DrewJohnston.com.... So the money I pay for hosting I'd be paying anyway.... The cost for the domain is like $10/year.

If I paid someone to set up a a checkers site similiar to Chess.com where you create a username and your ranking is displayed and you can play with other people.... roughly what could it cost me?

grcorp, By the way, thanks so much for being patient and helping me out, I know I might seem completely clueless but I'm trying to get a sense if this is something I want to put some time into trying out on my free time. Even if this is a money-losing endeavor I ant to try it out

 

[grcorp]

grcorp, By the way, thanks so much for being patient and helping me out, I know I might seem completely clueless but I'm trying to get a sense if this is something I want to put some time into trying out on my free time. Even if this is a money-losing endeavor I ant to try it out

It's my pleasure, Drew.

To answer your question with regards to users signing in and having a ranking system for top-notch players, you're talking some pretty complex territory here. As soon as that comes into play, it's my opinion that you'll be approaching the 4 figures very quickly.

If you want to try your hand at being a webmaster, it's my recommendation that you do it in something you're passionate about. If that's checkers, then maybe making a checkers site or a checkers blog is the way to go. But I've had all sorts of crazy ideas in the past, and I eventually realized how difficult it would really be to make something out of them when I wasn't even knowledgeable in the slightest about the topic at hand, never mind passionate about it.

A simple blog can go quite a long way... a guy like Steve Pavilna has made a living out of his blog (and by a living, I mean $1,000 a day), just writing how-to articles on self development. Possible revenue streams are endless... from banner ads, to Amazon Associates commissions (earn as much as 8% of the gross sale of any product - an easy sale if you cite a book in your article), to newsletter advertising to opt-in users, to paid-to-include posts. Take HotForWords on Youtube for example... she mentioned the site date.com on one of her videos, which was a blatant product placement, and must have cost date.com a significant amount of money to do. If your blog becomes a real authority in a certain industry, you could get paid very well just for blogging about a company's latest product or service.

On the topic of banner ads, have a look at the costs of advertising right here on DNforum.com... http://www.dnforum.com/advertise.php. This site was started in 2002, and has had no trouble generating tons of traffic which can justify such price tags. With the right unique content, a blog of yours can pull down some pretty good dough, while you have fun in the process and spend very little to maintain it (blogs are very easy to set up yourself).

 

[DJCOM]

Grcorp,

Thanks for the help!

I should mention. I know it might seem silly at this point considering what we discussed up until now, but I actually just hired a web development firm to make a very complex web application for me. They're going to be working on it over the course of the next three months. I bring it up because, although I can't get into too much detail (The idea is original and a pretty good one) it has to do with what I'm passionate about: filmmaking. So I get what you're saying about having to be passionate about the topic of the site. I guess for something like the checkers site I kind of had the attitude of a guy open a mcdonalds franchise, "I'm not necessarily passionate about it but I think I can rake in some dough on it."

 

[grcorp]

Grcorp,

Thanks for the help!

I should mention. I know it might seem silly at this point considering what we discussed up until now, but I actually just hired a web development firm to make a very complex web application for me. They're going to be working on it over the course of the next three months. I bring it up because, although I can't get into too much detail (The idea is original and a pretty good one) it has to do with what I'm passionate about: filmmaking. So I get what you're saying about having to be passionate about the topic of the site. I guess for something like the checkers site I kind of had the attitude of a guy open a mcdonalds franchise, "I'm not necessarily passionate about it but I think I can rake in some dough on it."

You hit the nail on the head right there. DotComGod, the owner of this site, owns it because he was in web development and is passionate about domains. It's by far the best domaining resource on the net today, and if some guy just thought to himself "there's a lot of money being thrown around in domain names so maybe I can start a forum on it" chances are he wouldn't be successful as he would not even know the first thing about building the forum from scratch.

Of course, if you're passionate about coding and just want to build a nice website, then that becomes a passion which can perpetuate the site's existence for a reason besides monetary gain.

Since you're working with a web developer at present, here's another idea for you to consider... why not ask him to take a few hours to not just build your checkers idea, but to show you how to do it in the process. That way, you become versed (more or less) in coding, and can get the site online. Then, should you come across a good domain name for chess, tetris, racing games, etc. - you won't have to pay to have that site developed. Perhaps create the Drew Johnston network of gaming sites?

 

[ngconcepts]

Ok, I value your efforts here. However, grcorp, you mentioned earlier that you are not a coder either and you are giving DJCOM advice about it? One is not going to learn how to code in a matter of few hours. Years of skills working on the job or in school help you obtain those skills, not a few hours. Besides, knowing how to throw up some HTML is not going to cut it. You will need to know a lot more than just the web side of things. You will need to know back-end technologies, ie.. scripting or object-oriented languages as well as knowing how to work with databases. Sure, there are cookie cutter programs out there like Word Press that take away the hard aspect coding a website. However, if you want to create a custom web application like your checkers app, you are going to need hardcore programming.

 

[grcorp]

Ok, I value your efforts here. However, grcorp, you mentioned earlier that you are not a coder either and you are giving DJCOM advice about it? One is not going to learn how to code in a matter of few hours. Years of skills working on the job or in school help you obtain those skills, not a few hours. Besides, knowing how to throw up some HTML is not going to cut it. You will need to know a lot more than just the web side of things. You will need to know back-end technologies, ie.. scripting or object-oriented languages as well as knowing how to work with databases. Sure, there are cookie cutter programs out there like Word Press that take away the hard aspect coding a website. However, if you want to create a custom web application like your checkers app, you are going to need hardcore programming.

For the few hours, I was referring to what it would take to make minor alterations to and implement a site which plays the simple function of playing checkers or another game, under the assumption he was using a pre-made API. Unquestionably, creation of an all new API would require a whole lot of expert coding, and IMO, is not worth the minimal returns to be had initially. Maybe once it's making some money, that's a different story.

 

[Gerry]

I'm a filmmaker: DrewJohnston.com...

Did you do some work on the remake of H.G. Wells Time Machine a few years ago? I sold several antique horse-drawn buggy props (primarily carriage lanterns and other props) to the production company and your name is familiar in that regard.